By With the NBA finals underway and has been as advertised then a surprise the next between two vastly different teams in the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers who quickly eliminated the upstart and competitive Denver Nuggets in 5 games while the Miami Heat won another combative 6 game with the Boston Celtics setting up the finals. So where do we begin with the storylines that are in this series? Well why start with the King himself LeBron James.
LeBron James once again at the NBA finals after missing the playoffs last season has been on a mission to get the Lakers to this point especially with the untimely death of Laker icon Kobe Bryant earlier this year only added more drive to his purpose this season. But irony is in this finals as he faces his former team the Miami Heat where he went to in controversial fashion for some in 2010, leading the Heat to 4 straight finals winning 2 but for some Heat fans he only complete half of his objective after promising 7 or 8 titles in his introduction to south beach leaving a slight bitter taste for fans.
But in order for James to bring a championship to Laker nation he must defeat his former team to do with what many say is the best sidekick he’s had ever in big man Anthony Davis who has had some spectacular and less than spectacular moments in these playoffs but has the chance to show the world that legitimately is top 5 player in NBA in these finals. Now how about the underdog Miami Heat you ask?
The Miami Heat who weren’t totally placed in the NBA finals picture this season maximize the most of this reset and kept fighting and outworking teams to get to this point, led by Jimmy Butler who many believe before this season was a toxic player and malcontent has simply squashed those perceptions and validating what few saw in the Minnesota and Philadelphia situation.
That Butler was an intense, tough, rough around the edges, competitive player who wants to win and give 100% all the time which he felt wasn’t being done in Minnesota with center Karl-Anthony Towns who they rewarded with large contract instead of Butler and the 76ers chose let Butler go and not double down on the trio of Butler, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons that showed promised how times have change and maybe those probably regret the decisions they made when it comes to Butler.
Butler last summer also made his intentions clear that Miami was where he wanted to go because the culture set by basketball legend, coach and front office figure Pat Riley who played and coached the Lakers which is another storyline in itself but was enough to have Butler on board to join the team. Head coach Erik Spoelstra and this diverse roster was a good fit for Butler and vice versa and has led to a final’s appearance.
Now after last night the series is 3-1 Lakers but if we have learned anything from this postseason it is to not count out this Heat that is tough, resilient and will put up a fight until the end, which the Lakers hopefully are aware of after their lackluster game loss and 6 point pull out victory last night should indicate that this will not be the easy close outs they had against the Trailblazers, Rockets and Nuggets they had in the playoffs.
So, the elephant in the room for many probably is what is LeBron’s legacy or where is LeBron in NBA if he pulls this off? As he always been this is polarizing and complexed to answer but I can give my answer at least. For me if LeBron leads the Lakers to this championship it will make his argument for best player in basketball stronger for many because he will then have led 3 different teams to 3 championships which can be perceived differently but impressive regardless, doesn’t put him in any Laker great discussion because it’s 1 title in 2 years compared to many other greats that have worn the purple and gold, and it should make the unquestioned best person to win with so little support throughout his entire.
Yes he had Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh for 4 years, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving for basically 1 and ½ years and Anthony Davis for 1 year out of a 17 year career that has 10 NBA final appearances and this is coming from a Michael Jordan fan! Eventually sooner or later people will have to give him his respect but I fear that it’s going to be once he’s gone from basketball that then people will appreciate him, his impact and body of work instead seeing or appreciating it in real time.
Strictly talking BASKETBALL here not his social endeavors and stances which have been positives for less fortunate people, the basketball aspect he might be the greatest player ever. Now their different greatest tags in my view example Michael Jordan greatest career, Bill Russell greatest winner and so on is how this should be broke down because there’s so ground to cover, regardless this restart has been one of the better things to happen to basketball despite these unique and awful circumstances but we have gotten some competitive championship so far in these finals.